


Mensa Doesn't Measure Emotional Intelligence

by betheflame, Huntress79



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adult Shuri (Marvel), Alternate Universe - College/University, Bucky Barnes Feels, Demisexuality, F/M, Genius Shuri (Marvel), Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Protective T'Challa (Marvel), Scientist Shuri (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-22 23:38:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23002234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/pseuds/Huntress79
Summary: Shuri is a first year graduate student at Princeton University and is determined to keep her identity as Princess of Wakanda a secret. Then she meets this boy in a coffee shop...____A collaboration between betheflame & Huntress79 for the Marvel Rare Pair Big Bang 2019.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Shuri, Nakia (Black Panther)/T'Challa, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 106
Collections: Fave Stories of Queixo, Marvel Rare Pair Bang 2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for joining us on our little canoe of a rare pair. We're pretty excited about this fic! Flame says thanks to kocuria for the beta/cheerleading/hand holding.  
> Huntress here: My lovely Flame, thank you so much for first picking my prompt out of the pile and then creating such a wonderful story from it! _hugs_ When I created the prompt, I never, ever expected to receive such a gem!!
> 
> Artpost: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23046397

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_Ten Years Ago: Shuri is 15_

“Brother,” Shuri addressed T’Challa without lifting her head away from her microscope.

“How did you know it was me?” The Crown Prince of Wakanda moved closer with a questioning tone in his voice.

“You walk like something is weighing down your shoes and you always smell like that lotion Nakia left you and you lather on yourself like a lovesick idiot,” she replied, containing her grin and squinting at the slide. I can’t replicate the behavior electronically or physically, she mused to herself. Perhaps I do need to admit it’s an anomaly.

“I am not a lovesick idiot,” T’Challa protested. “I am in a carefully constructed campaign to woo Nakia.”

“We just said the same thing,” Shuri turned from the device and gave her brother a long hug. He’d been gone for the last three months in Afghanistan or Iraq - maybe Saudi Arabia? -, embedded in a military campaign with some special forces someone or another (Shuri didn’t really care where he was, she just knew he wasn’t in Wakanda which meant he wasn’t safe and so she didn’t really rest until he was back in her lab. His international jaunts were killer on her health but wonderful for her productivity) but he’d returned that morning.

“Miss me, little sister?” he enquired, his voice soft.

“Like I miss a toothache,” she replied with a smile. When she pulled back from the hug, she went over to one of the work tables and took down some pocket sized blocks. “I worked on the claw sharpeners while you were gone. Got them light enough to put in the bottom of a rucksack.”

“Perfect, Shuri, thank you,” T’Challa accepted the gift with a smile. “I have one for you as well.”

He produced an issue of Wired magazine with Tony Stark on the cover. He’d just unveiled his miniature arc reactors - god, if she wasn’t itching to get her hands on one.

“The commissary on the American base had a few copies. Evidently, several of my compatriots are not pleased he is shuttering his weapons division,” T’Challa reported.

“And yet the rest of us are delighted,” Shuri remarked. “His innovation is too important to be limited to things that kill innocents.”

She looked at her brother to see a glint of a smirk on his lips.

“What, Challa?”

“For someone who has been on the forefront of creating all of our weapons, you have strong feelings about Stark’s, that’s all.”

Shuri rolled her eyes. “I create shields to protect us from satellites and irrigation systems for the goats and a few guns in case we’re ever invaded. None of the warriors are interested in my weapons.”

T’Challa silently moved to one of her shelves and picked up a pair of gauntlets. “And these are the newest accessory for the fashion conscious princess?”

“Okay, you’re done now,” Shuri said and T’Challa laughed. He crossed the room and kissed her cheek.

“I shall leave you to your codes and wires, my sister,” he replied. “I have other gifts to distribute.”

“Brother,” Shuri said quietly as T’Challa started to leave.

“Shuri,” he placed himself directly in her line of vision, “what are you not saying?”

“You have to make him let me leave,” she blurted out. “I checked all the requirements and I know I could pass all their silly A-Levels or whatever and I know I could get in. You have to talk to Father and make him see reason.”

The look of pity on T’Challa’s face nearly killed her.

“You know he will not budge on this matter.”

“But-”

“Shuri, the protection of our people is more important than your dream of a Nobel Prize,” T’Challa said, with a hint of censure that Shuri didn’t care for.

“Of course it is, you reductionistic idiot, I’m not saying it’s not,” Shuri snapped. “But all I am asking to do is to go to university and study in a proper lab and collaborate with people and see the world. Me going to Oxford will not destroy the Kingdom.”

“But it will,” T’Challa insisted. “Shuri, you are a genius, and we all know that. Everyone who has come here to tutor you under all those secrecy agreements and treaties has said so. Do you honestly think that when someone from one of the poorest countries on Earth shows up in England with advanced knowledge of the electromagnetic properties of vibranium , the world will not take notice? You are the Crown Princess of Wakanda, sister, and that is your most important job.”

“But-”

“I must ally with Father on this,” T’Challa said firmly. “As much as it pains me to crush your dreams, you must let this one die. I cannot support you going to Oxford. I’m sorry.”

He left her in her lab without another word and she allowed herself four minutes to cry before she wiped her eyes and opened a line of code on her computer.

“Okay then,” she addressed the only thing that understood her. “Back to work then.”

* * *

_Same Time:_ _Bucky is 22._

“So,” Steve Rogers said as he sorted through the mail.

“Buttons,” Bucky Barnes muttered, trying for the fourteen _hundredth_ time to break his best friend of the habit of starting every fucking sentence with ‘so’.

Steve lazily flipped him off and continued. “You got skinny ones from Yale, UNC, Michigan, and Brown. Then thick envelopes from Stanford, Baylor, Dartmouth, NYU, and Columbia. Congrats, etc, etc, but I’m telling you right now I’m not flying to Waco and I really hate California, so that should help you narrow your choices down.”

Bucky snorted. “I applied the top 15 English programs in the country, Stevie, and I can’t say I really took your willingness to play tourist into consideration.”

There was a moment of silence between the two men while Steve handed the thick envelopes to Bucky, who took them reverently. Everyone applying to college knew what the thick envelopes meant.

“Chick flick moment,” Bucky said quietly, “I can’t believe I did it.”

Steve’s face broke out into a huge grin. “Oh thank god we’re acknowledging this. I thought I was gonna have to be cool. FIVE acceptances, Buck! FIVE! Including your top three! This is massive!”

Bucky blushed slightly and blinked back a tear. When he was sixteen years old, he’d dropped out of school to care for his younger sister, Darcy, after their parents had died in a terrible train crash. They’d lived with the Rogers’. He’d managed a GED somewhere along the way, but had gladly enlisted in the Marine Corps when Steve had suggested it. When freshly legal Bucky Barnes turned up at basic training, he was a one-man charm offensive, used to working whatever angle necessary to make sure he and Darcy were safe and provided for.

When he was medically discharged at 21, Bucky’s soul had started to quiet. Darcy was in culinary school on a full scholarship that Sarah Rogers had helped to finagle, and he had started to dream about what his life could look like when he wasn’t gripped by fear every moment of every day.

He’d spent years in the sand being told he was saving the world and learning that it was never that simple. In fact, he’d say the only good thing that came out of any of it was that Steve had met Tony and now his best friend was so in love that it almost made Bucky sick - if it didn’t almost simultaneously make him so happy he could spontaneously cry.

It was still a mindfuck that Steve had fallen for Tony Stark of all people, but if someone had asked Bucky to design Steve’s perfect match from scratch, he probably wouldn’t have been far off from the man Tony turned out to be.

“Are you calling Darce and Mom, or am I?” Steve asked Bucky. “Because they’re gonna want to know ASAP, pal.”

“Let me look at the financial aid packages,” Bucky replied. “No use telling them I got into NYU if they’re not gonna offer me enough to actually go.”

“Good point,” Steve said, as he took back one of the envelopes and ripped it open.

“Hey!”

“Speeding up the process,” Steve said, not taking his eyes off the packet from Dartmouth. “Full tuition all four years, no room and board, though.”

Bucky nodded and saw that Baylor and Columbia both had similar offers. “Stanford is GI money plus full ride, but I have to commit to doing my MA there.”

“I already said no California,” Steve replied pragmatically. “Oh, NYU is gonna work.”

“Yeah?”

Steve handed the papers over with a big grin. “Full ride, GI money used for living expenses, and all you have to do is TA the last two years.”

“So, NYU,” Bucky said with a sigh of wonder in his voice.

“I’m so proud of you, pal,” Steve’s voice quavered and Bucky knew the waterworks were coming.

“You want to call Tony, don’t you,” Bucky smiled at him.

Steve blushed and held up his phone. “He’s sent fourteen messages since I told him we found thick envelopes.”

Bucky laughed. Steve’s boyfriend was a lot of things - genius, billionaire, philanthropist, to name the ones that usually came in the headlines - but one of them was that he was a huge dork. He emotionally adopted Steve’s entire family, including Bucky and Darcy, like he was adopting strays from the pound. It would be stressful if it wasn’t so kind.

Bucky had no idea, for instance, how Steve talked Tony out of paying for Bucky’s education, but he did. Generosity was one thing, spoiling was another.

“He’s gonna want to take us to dinner,” Bucky smiled, “so tell him it’s gotta be somewhere I can wear jeans.”

Steve nodded and typed away quickly. After a few seconds, he looked back up. “He said sport coats go with jeans and he’ll see us at Craft at 7:30. He already called Colicchio and they’re doing that duck thing tonight that you love.”

Bucky tilted his head from side to side as though deliberating. “That duck is worth a sport coat.”

Steve grinned. “Oh, and he said to remind you that your final fitting is at 11 tomorrow morning and I have to remind him at 10.”

“I’ll be there,” Bucky replied, ignoring the nervous swoop in his belly. Tony had been working on a prosthetic for him to replace the one the government had issued. The prosthetics line was part of the new phase of Stark Industries and Bucky was one of the main test subjects.

He opened and closed the clunky hand on the current model and took a deep breath. A new path, a new arm… his sister was settled and happy, his best friend was set for life.

Not shabby for an orphan from Red Hook.

* * *

_ Present Day: Princeton University _

“No,” Shuri snarled at her brother. “I am not taking -”

T’Challa held up his hand. “My final offer is that Okoye will accompany you to New Jersey and serve as your roommate. This has been arranged with the university.”

“Your Highness, I will be a fully enrolled student,” Okoye offered. “The only people who will know I am not is the senior administration.”

“We have people writing all of her papers and everything,” T’Challa continued. “So your cover is safe. You are simply Shuri Radebe, a scholarship student from Wakanda who studied in South Africa.”

“I do have two degrees from the University of Pretoria,” Shuri rolled her eyes. “One from the London School of Economics and a few from The Open University as well. I know my cover. Plus, you have other things to be focusing on than me.”

“Forgive me, sister,” T’Challa said fondly.

Shuri huffed, but it was warm. They all knew the only reason that T’Challa had even agreed to her moving to the U.S. was that he and Nakia had just had their second child. Unless a true tragedy befell them all, Shuri was not in a position to inherit the throne. Their father’s death had brought many changes to their lives - Okoye kept hoping that T’Challa would allow Nairobi Java Hut to franchise there - but the biggest was the loosening of restrictions on Shuri’s life.

After four degrees in theoretical matters such as politics, economics, and international affairs, she was aching to get into a lab. Princeton was the perfect place - close enough to New York that flights were easy to catch, far enough away from most of the biggest tech companies (Stark Industries excluded, of course) that her research shouldn’t make any waves.

She was also counting on good old American racism in the hopes that no one would pay attention to a young black woman in a graduate lab in the middle of New Jersey. She was so close to stabilizing the reactions between vibranium and adamantium. So close.

“Your Highness,” Okoye cut in.

“You better get used to calling me Shuri,” Shuri addressed her. “Because the minute we get to Princeton, that is the only name I will answer to.”

Okoye looked like she had swallowed a frog, but forced it out. “Shuri, His Majesty informed me you have some new communication devices for us to use while in America?”

Shuri bit her lip to hide a grin. Okoye’s feathers were fun to ruffle, but no one loved Wakanda more. “Yes, and they work on our private satellite, so the connection back to Wakanda is secure.”

The trio fell into discussing more details until someone came to fetch T’Challa for a meeting with the council.

Okoye smiled at Shuri. “I’ll blend in, I promise.”

Shuri barked out a laugh. “We’ll be two African girls on an American Ivy League campus. We will be the very opposite of blending in, but I take your point. Nakia has arranged for American clothes to be delivered to the apartment, so that will help.”

Okoye shot her a look.

“Maybe,” Shuri grinned. “Although I’ve never been one for blending in anyway.”

Okoye snorted. “I honestly think I’d be worried if you did.”

* * *

“Steven,” Tony called from the kitchen. “Where did you put the Enfamil?”

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand and answered, “the cabinet above the microwave?”

“Jesus, Steven, I need the stepladder -”

Bucky bit back a laugh before hoisting himself off the couch. “I’ll grab it.”

Steve - and the bags under his eyes - gave his best friend a thankful glance. “If I move, he screams.”

“You adopted a picky little thing, that’s for sure,” Bucky affirmed before heading to the kitchen to help Tony make up a bottle.

“I can’t believe he’d put it there, it’s not like I can reach it,” Tony was muttering to himself as Bucky approached.

“Hey, Geek Squad,” Bucky said easily. “Cut him some slack. You’re both fucking exhausted and being a dad is hard.”

Tony made a face at Bucky that told Bucky Tony knew he was right but wasn’t going to admit it, and then directed Bucky to the proper cabinet.

“Enough about our hellmouth,” Tony said as he added the formula to the bottle maker. “How’s comp prep coming?”

“Terribly,” Bucky laughed. “How the hell did you do this at 20?”

“Speed, my friend,” Tony smiled. “Lots, and lots of speed.”

Bucky snorted and scooted Tony out of the way to start to wash their dishes. It had been six weeks since Tony and Steve had brought Peter home, and fatherhood was beginning to take its toll on the pair. Tony had fired their cleaning service in a fit of exhausted rage two weeks back and had too much pride to rehire them, so Bucky and their other friends Nat, Sharon, and Clint had been quietly doing chores whenever they went to visit.

“What’s the scariest part right now?” Tony asked.

“Making sure there’s no holes in my argument,” Bucky replied. “So, really, it’s the research proposal defense I’m most worried about. The exams themselves are going to be hell and I’m sure I’ll fuck at least one up, but if I can pass and start my research, then I’ll be fine.”

“You touch feely humanities people, how does your inferior system work?”

Bucky lazily flipped Tony off - they were always sniping about hard sciences and humanities - and explained. “I have four main comprehensive exams that will cover everything an English PhD should know. Major movements in the Western canon, important figures, theories of literary criticism, all of that. That’ll take about a week and after that I get another master’s degree in English Literature. Then, about two weeks after I pass those exams, I sit before a panel and explain what I want to write my PhD thesis about - we call that a research defense - and then I can start doing the research and writing the book that is my thesis.”

Tony nodded and Bucky was proud of him for refraining from being an ass about writing a book versus doing a project, like Tony had done for his three PhDs. “Steve said you finally decided on a question?”

Bucky screwed up his face. “Well, I’ve narrowed down to a topic. I want to look at queer women’s artistic output in comics from 1960-1990 and then compare it to 2015-2020.”

“And no one has done that?”

“Not from a literary perspective, no,” Bucky said, “not that I can find. They’ll look at women, or at queer people, or at another time frame, but my specific parameters seem to be overlooked.”

“Then that’s a PhD,” Tony affirmed. “A question small enough that it will never matter to anyone, and unique enough that you’ll be the expert in it forever.”

Bucky laughed. “Pretty much.”

“And hey,” Tony said, his voice quiet. “I know we’re a little distracted with the urchin out there, but we know this isn’t a great time for you. We’re proud of you, but I remember being so overwhelmed with self-doubt I could barely breathe. We’re here for you, kiddo.”

“I hate it when you call me that,” Bucky said, in an effort to stave off the tears of gratitude he knew were coming at the kind words.

“Do you prefer Build-A-Buck? Or Shakespeare? Or Dr. Buck? Or, wait,” Tony grinned and raised his voice again. “How ‘bout Corleone?”

“Anthony!” Steve’s exasperated voice rang through the apartment, soon followed by Peter’s wail.

“Fuck,” Steve swore, and Bucky could hear him coming closer.

“Corleone?” Bucky repeated.

“It’s his ridiculous way of asking you to be Pete’s godfather,” Steve rolled his eyes and Bucky didn’t bother to stop the tears from that. I’m just tired, that’s why I’m so emotional, Bucky told himself.

“Well, then let me take my godson off your hands,” Bucky replied and peeled the fussy infant away from Steve. “You both go shower - smells like you haven’t in a little bit - and Peter and I will hold down the fort.”

Steve and Tony looked at each other and then back at Bucky.

“I don’t care or need to know in what arrangement you do that in. Just shoo.”

The men didn’t need to be told a second time, and Bucky walked around their house gently bouncing Peter with a smile on his face. As soon as the formula was ready, Bucky settled down with Peter in the crook of his arm and fed the boy, relishing in the simple task that could be easily accomplished - which was a complete contrast to the rest of his life, which was full of tasks that would take years to finish or were so overwhelming he was fixing to have a panic attack.

But feed his godson? That he could handle.

* * *

It was one of those fall days in Princeton where everything seemed crisp and bright and stereotypical. Bucky and Darcy crunched their way to Small World Coffee up Nassau Street from Bucky’s apartment and settled themselves in. Darcy had lots of news to fill her brother in on - mostly of the who she was Bumbling with that week variety - and Bucky found a calm in Darcy’s presence he found only a few other places. Most other people expected him to be smart in a way that stressed him out. Just because he was a PhD candidate did not make him a genius and he much preferred talking about the way the Mets were embarrassing themselves that particular season than his dissertation.

His family were the only ones who really got all of him, he figured. The only ones who knew all the facets, including the boy who would walk through fire for them and had. The Almost Dr. Barnes belonged to other people. Bucky belonged to them.

“Bro,” Darcy said quietly, “you are maybe 20 feet from a restraining order the way your tongue is hanging out of your mouth. Who is she?”

“I have no idea,” Bucky admitted, pointedly ignoring his sister’s comment. “But we’re both in here all the time. She comes from the science building and I think I saw her carrying Tony’s book which means she’s a grad student or a genius.”

“Or both,” Darcy commented. “Tony is a lot of things, but an easy read is not one of them.”

“Well, neither of us understand artificial intelligence, so I’m not sure we’re the best measure.”

The pair moved on to other topics - namely Peter, who was _everyone’s_ favorite topic these days - but since Bucky had a hard time dragging his eye away from the stately girl with the elaborate hairdo and oversized flannel shirt, he knew Darcy wouldn’t drop it either.

“I’ll tell you what,” Darcy finally said. “If you get her name, I promise to distract Sarah at Thanksgiving so she doesn’t ask you about when you’re giving her grandbabies.”

“Done,” Bucky said so fast the word fell out of his mouth. He loved Steve’s ma, he really did, but gahhhh, Irish mothers and their obsession with babies.

* * *

_Two Days Later_

They were both in line for coffee at the same time and Bucky knew if he didn’t take his shot now, it wasn’t gonna happen.

Genius Woman (as he’d begun to refer to her in his head after Googling some of the book titles he’d seen her carrying) was just in front of him and clutching Tony's tome. _Now or never, Barnes._

“What do you think of that book?” Bucky said, hoping she’d realize he was addressing her.

She shifted her body and made eye contact with him and his knees buckled just a little. There’d been a voice in his head that said she looked familiar for weeks, but he’d been ignoring it since he couldn’t quite place her. Today, however, she had her braids twisted in an up-do and he could see the small panther tattoo behind her ear and he knew.

He had a crush on T’Challa’s baby sister.

He, James Buchanan Barnes, veteran, orphan, and dedicated occupant of the working-class tax bracket, had been fantasizing about the _Princess of Wakanda_.

_Fuck my fucking life._

“Stark’s?” She cocked a perfectly sculpted eyebrow and Bucky was a goner. “It’s fine. A decent foundational text, I suppose, but largely derivative now. The field has progressed so much.”

Bucky couldn’t contain himself and snorted.

“What was that for?” Her accent sounded exactly like her brother’s - a soft lilt of another place that made him nostalgic for his unit for the first time in a long time.

“Oh, I just know him,” Bucky explained. “He’s married to my best friend and I would pay you all the money in my bank account to call him derivative to his face.”

She smiled. “Scolding egotistical white men is my favorite hobby.”

He outright laughed and stuck his hand out. “I’m James.”

“Shuri,” she replied and it was on the tip of his tongue to say that he knew. And then Tony’s voice entered his head in the form of a memory.

_“Stark,” Bucky said quietly as he sat down next to Tony. “How did you know Steve was your one?”_

_Tony smiled and leaned in slightly to Bucky. “He didn’t know who I was.”_

_Bucky burst out laughing. “You were in Iraq to show us your new flack jackets. He knew Tony Stark was coming to base.”_

_Tony nodded. “He figured I’d be about thirty years older, so when he found me in the mess the night before the infamous Tony was scheduled to arrive, he just started asking me about the book I was reading. I fell in love with him about fifteen minutes later.”_

_“Wow,” Bucky replied. “And now you’re engaged.”_

_Tony smiled. “When you live a life that belongs to other people, there’s really something about someone wanting to get to know you.”_

So Bucky made a split second decision and smiled. “Nice to meet you, Shuri.”

* * *

_WhatsApp: Team ‘Get Bucky Laid’_

_Bucky: The name change is a bit much, Stark._

_Tony: Well, that’s what we’re all here for, right? You finally sacked up and talked to the coffee shop woman._

_Bucky: And then promptly invited her to dinner at your house._

_Tony: Yeah, not your smoothest move, Ex-Lax, but we can work with it._

_Steve: Tell him what she said about his book._

_Tony: She has my book? Which one?_

_Bucky: The first one. Your work is evidently derivative._

_Bucky: Did his head just explode?_

_Steve: He’s currently babbling to Peter about how young people today have no respect for their elders._

_Bucky: I’m gonna fuck this up._

_Steve: Well, with that attitude._

_Bucky: Stevie..._

_Steve: She’s a human woman, not a goddess. You can use your words and we’ll be here to help._

_Steve: I ain’t seen you like this in ages._

_Steve: I’m excited for you._

Bucky looked up from his phone for a minute and worried his bottom lip. He knew Steve would remember T’Challa, even though Bucky was the only one who kept in tangential touch with the man. A crown prince embedded in an American Marine unit was a hard person to forget, after all, but Bucky wasn’t sure he wanted to out Shuri yet.

But then there was the matter that T’Challa had once told Bucky that no one would ever be good enough for his sister, and he was glad she was more interested in lab experiments than social engagements.

_Bucky: Just be cool with her, okay?_

_Steve: What does that mean?! I’m always cool!_

_Tony: You have never been cool, schnookums. We love you anyway. It’s our cross to bear._

Bucky bit back a laugh and took a deep breath. Time to get ready for his date.


	2. Chapter 2

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“He is very handsome,” Okoye observed.

“You are not helping,” Shuri snapped. She flipped through her closet and settled on a leather pencil skirt and oversized bright pink sweater. There, casual but stylish, and I look like a normal human on a date and not a bundle of nerve endings that are threatening to explode when James smiles at me.

“You are having dinner at his friend’s house,” Okoye replied. “Not shopping for wedding dresses. Please calm down.”

“Calm down, she says blithely as though I do this every day,” Shuri muttered to herself.

“Do you want him to know this is your very first date or not,” Okoye said pragmatically. “If you act like a hyena then he will know.”

“Thank you for your insight,” Shuri snapped. “I have never looked like a hyena.”

“You laugh like one when you’re nervous,” Okoye replied without blinking.

“I do not!” Shuri shook her head and the pair bickered for several minutes until Shuri collapsed on the bed with an air of defeat.

Okoye sat down next to her. “Better?”

Shuri smiled and leaned her shoulder into her bodyguard roommate friend. In the six weeks since they’d arrived in the U.S., Shuri had been delightfully surprised by Okoye’s dry wit and warm companionship. They liked some of the same television shows - _Derry Girls, Catastrophe,_ and _Fleabag_ were favorites - and beyond the security aspect, Shuri could admit it was helpful to have someone remind her to eat.

The first week of burned toast reminded Shuri quickly that there was a reason she wasn’t allowed in the palace kitchens, except to collect already prepared foods.

Laundry had also been a hilarious adventure, until Okoye found a service who would just collect their clothes from the apartment, launder them, and deliver them right back. Shuri saw no reason to learn chores she’d never need again… not when her lab times were so precious.

As a first year graduate student, she had assigned times in some of the labs. Her main desk was hers all the time, but the more specialized labs required time slots. Nothing - not hunger, exhaustion, or probably nuclear war - kept her from those times. Which meant that she had met almost no one outside the chemistry or physics departments.

Except for Gorgeous Coffee Man.

She’d started noticing him on Mondays and Thursdays when she had the alloy lab from 7:30-9:30. He was always at the same table, surrounded by giant piles of literature anthologies, tapping away at his computer with headphones firmly on. Between his fluffy hair and scruff lining his jaw, he was already the most beautiful white man she’d ever seen in person and then one day they made eye contact and he became the most beautiful man period.

His eyes were…

The only word she could place was eyoyikisayo, a Xhosa word she’d learned from somewhere that meant something akin to ‘overwhelming’. If she caught his eyes - even when they weren’t looking at her - she was, indeed, overwhelmed.

She’d bought extra batteries that night and soon had a rich fantasy narrative for her and Gorgeous Coffee Man.

And then she’s spied the arm.

Shuri may not have any idea what to do with male humans, but she certainly knew her way around technology and GCM was sporting a state-of-the-art metal prosthetic arm that moved so silently, she could have sworn the plating was just tattoos.

By the time he talked to her that morning in line, she was hopeless for him.

_“So, you know the high and mighty Tony Stark?” she cocked an eyebrow and was rewarded with rich laughter._

_“Yeah, he married my best friend a while back. They just adopted a kid, actually, about three months ago. Peter. He’s basically the best thing on Earth.”_

_“Well, I respect his work in artificial intelligence, but the foundations of electrical engineering he used to integrate the AI motherboards into his portable medical robotic units are outdated and likely to break soon.”_

Shuri _, she scolded herself when James’ eyebrows shot up._ Stop insulting Hot Man’s friend.

_“Well, Shuri,” he said with a smile slowly creeping across his face, “that sure sounds dangerous. I was serious about offering to introduce you, but now… Are you free on Thursday night?”_

_Shuri did a quick calculation and nodded._

_“I’m having dinner at their house - do you want to come? It’s nothing fancy, but Tony will be thrilled to have someone to talk science with - Steve and I usually talk ‘bout our work and he’s an artist and I’m a comics nerd.” James’s eyes twinkled a bit. “So whuddya say?”_

And then Shuri T’Chana Okonawe, Crown Princess of the Kingdom of Wakanda, who stared down heads of state with ice in her stare, did the scariest thing she’d ever done in her life.

She said yes.

And now, James was picking her up in 22 minutes.

“Shuri,” Okoye said softly. “He is a man who makes you smile and this is just dinner with two of his friends. We’ve run every background check we could without alerting Stark’s systems that we were, and it appears that most of the media coverage of Stark has been fabricated intentionally to keep the press away from his husband and child. Which is exactly what your brother is doing, so I think tonight might not be so bad.”

“The food, though,” Shuri moaned. “I’m so tired of American food.”

“Well, then you should probably have thought twice about moving to America,” Okoye replied, not giving an inch into Shuri’s whining.

Shuri smacked the other woman with a pillow, but laughed. “Ethiopian tomorrow? At least injera will taste closer to home.”

“If you go tonight, we can have sponge bread tomorrow.”

“I don’t know what you have against injera,” Shuri said. “It’s delicious.”

“It’s like eating a sour sponge,” Okoye countered.

“Fine. I’ll go tonight.”

“Good,” Okoye said and then flashed Shuri the screen on her phone, which was attached to the security camera they had out front. “Because he’s early and wearing a leather jacket and if you don’t go with him, I will.”

* * *

“Shuri, it is so nice to meet you,” Steve’s smile was wide and welcoming. Bucky grinned at his best friend - always the politest human to be born this side of 1950.

“Thank you for having me for dinner,” she returned as a blood curdling scream filled the air and all three adults winced.

“My son is having a bit of a day,” Steve apologized. “I’ll go see what Tony needs. Buck, you can -”

Bucky waved him off. “Please go make sure Peter hasn’t pierced Tony’s ear drums.”

Steve shot his best friend a grateful look and took off down the hall at nearly a jog. Bucky led Shuri into the living room - which was spotless, which meant they had finally found a cleaning service, or now Nat and Sharon knew about Shuri and that was going to be fun - and asked if she wanted anything to drink.

“Water’s fine,” she replied, and he noticed a catch of something in her voice. Maybe he wasn’t the only nervous one.

“How old is Peter?” Shuri asked when Bucky returned with two glasses.

“Nine months,” Bucky replied, taking a sip. “Tony and Steve adopted him around three months, his ma was a friend of ours. There were a ton of birth complications and she didn’t make it, and one thing kinda led to another… Anyway, he’s a Stark-Rogers now, for all his sins, and we’re pretty obsessed with him, our whole little family.”

“What do you mean, your ‘whole little family’ Do you not just have a family?”

He turned to make eye contact with her and nearly lost his breath again at the intensity of her gaze. Shuri was a woman who saw things, he knew, not just someone who looked.

“Stevie’s ma is the only one alive outta all our parents, and I’m the only one who’s close to my sibling, so we’ve just kinda made family for each other,” Bucky explained.

“Who is we?”

He smiled. “Right, so Steve, and Darcy - that’s my sister - and I all grew up together. Steve and I were both too poor for college, so we joined the Marines -” Bucky waved his metal arm a little “- and he got a husband as a souvenir and I got this thing. He and Tony met over there, and then they moved back to New York for a while.”

Bucky took another sip. “So, Darce ended up at Villanova for grad school, which isn’t far from here, and lived with these three girls that just kinda never stopped showing up. So Nat, Sharon, and Jane joined, then Jane brought Thor, who brought Sam, who married Sharon, who brought Clint, who is currently stressing us all out by pretending he’s not in love with Nat, who is Darcy’s business partner.”

“That is a lot of people,” Shuri laughed. “Do you all wear nametags?”

Bucky’s mouth quirked into a smile. “Only when we induct new members.”

“Or when there’s been tequila,” a voice said from the doorway, and they both turned to see Tony entering the room with a sleeping Peter in his arms. “Sorry, demon baby made an appearance.”

Shuri rose from the couch with a grace that Bucky had only seen in dancers and royalty, and he felt a gut punch that he was so far out of his league.

“Mr. Stark,” she extended her hand. “Thank you for having me in your home.”

“Well, once Buckaroo told me you made fun of me, I had to have you over for canapes,” Tony said, with a sparkle in his eye. “And it’s Tony. This hallion is Peter, and my husband is re-sanitizing the kitchen table.”

“Ooof,” Bucky winced and then noticed Shuri turn to him with a raised eyebrow.

“Buckaroo?”

“Oh,” Tony’s eyes went wide. “You haven’t told her the terrible nickname yet? Oh please, please, please, can I?”

Shuri started laughing as Bucky went beet red. “What terrible nickname?”

“Oh, you’ll for certain never go out with him again, so let’s save that until after you’ve destroyed my life’s work, shall we?” Tony made a gesture to the dining room. “Dinner’s all set.”

* * *

Shuri had grown up in a palace and she knew formal dinners. She knew about manners required to eat with heads of state - even though Wakanda was isolated, there were a few countries they had clandestine trade agreement with and Shuri had been trained from a young age how to behave at both political and tribal events.

Going to a billionaire’s mansion, she would have assumed, would have been full of pomp and circumstance, complete with butlers and staff. She’d seen Downton Abbey. She knew what rich white people did.

Dinner at Tony and Steve’s however, was like sitting around the table with her family during normal dinners and it scared her how much she felt at home. There wasn’t any china, definitely no servants, and the three men spent just as much time making fun of each other as they did eating.

Steve had asked polite questions about her work, but soon she and Tony were in a heated debate about the foundations of alloy interaction and how to manipulate the chemical makeup of metal. As she talked, she ate tacos and found her water glass was refilled, and delighted in stealing side glances at James and Steve taking turns holding Peter so that Tony could focus on her.

Somewhere after the dinner plates were cleared and Steve headed to the kitchen to bring out some cake, James’ arm made a terrible noise. Everyone froze for half a second before Tony peered at James.

“How long?”

James waved his hand. “Only, like, a day or two.”

Tony didn’t break eye contact. “So, a week or two.”

“Tony, it’s fine. I’ll go to the clinic -”

Tony blinked and looked at Shuri quickly. “He’ll go to the clinic with people who aren’t nearly as trained as the man who built his arm. Are you sure about this one? He’s an idiot.” And with that, he was up out of his chair, stalking out of the room and muttering about James’ misdirected sense of not making a fuss.

Shuri, in response, tilted her head. “Can you make it make the noise again?”

James looked at her. “Um, sure?”

She nodded in encouragement, and she heard the grinding sound quickly. She grinned, grabbed a knife, and gestured for James to give her access to the arm, which he did with a quizzical expression.

Approximately fifteen seconds later, and with three twists of the knife while applying pressure on the inside of his bicep, she sat back and nodded. “Try again.”

He replicated the movement one more time and his eyes went wide. “What the fuck?”

She grinned. “I’ve played around with prosthesis for our security forces. Simple physics.”

The pair locked eyes for a moment and something held between them. Shuri’s afraid to breathe for a second and wonders if the plates on James’ arm can feel her fingers getting clammy.

Thankfully, a few moments later, she’s rescued by the sound of footsteps and immediately averts her eyes once more.

“It’s okay, I’ve-” Tony stopped short as he watched James move the arm with no noise.

“Shuri fixed his arm with a butter knife, sweetheart,” Steve said.

“When did you get back here?” James said to Steve.

“Somewhere around the time where you were making googly eyes at her while she showed my husband up,” Steve said, sliding a bite of cake into his mouth. “Been a fun few minutes.”

Shuri felt her ears heat with a blush - James was not making googly eyes at her. No way.

And then she lifted her gaze from his arm to his eyes and saw that…

Well, maybe he was making googly eyes.

And maybe she was making them back.

She heard laughter coming from the other side of the table and looked to see both Tony and Steve smiling at them.

“Welcome to the family, Shuri,” Tony winked.

* * *

_WhatsApp: Nakia & Shuri_

_Nakia: Sister, I must have details. Immediately._

_Shuri: I like him._

_Nakia: You’d be an idiot not to from what you have said. DETAILS._

_Shuri: Our third date is tomorrow._

_Shuri: Four if I count the dinner at Tony Stark’s._

_Nakia: Well, that’s a detail you’ve been sitting on._

_Nakia: Why did you have dinner at Tony Stark’s?_

_Shuri: Because his husband and James are best friends. I got to meet their son, Peter, who is cute enough to maybe make me rethink having children._

_Nakia: If mine aren’t cute enough, then an american boy isn’t cute enough._

_Shuri: We met for coffee the next day and I told Okoye we’d only be an hour, but it lasted for four._

_Nakia: She told me you missed your lab slot._

_Nakia: I immediately started planning your wedding._

_Shuri: I’m not that bad._

_Nakia: You are exactly that bad._

_Nakia: sister, if he is enough to make you miss your lab, he is special._

_Nakia: I’m very happy for you._

_Nakia: and I will not tell your brother._

_Shuri: And this is why you’re my favorite sister._

_Nakia: I’m your only sister._

_Shuri: well, James has one._

_Nakia: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

* * *

_Bucky and Shuri's Third Date_

_WhatsApp: Shuri & James_

_Shuri: I am so very sorry, James, but I have to cancel tonight._

She fought the moment of tears in her eyes, telling herself she was just exhausted and not really that disappointed to be missing the thing that had been getting her through the week.

_James: Are you okay?_

_Shuri: Yes, I am just coming off a long lab experiment that went completely wrong and I just want to be on my sofa and in soft clothes and not at a movie. I was really looking forward to seeing you, but I’ll be terrible company tonight._

She pocketed her phone and continued to clean up the mess she had caused. It buzzed again.

_James: If I’m being a creep, tell me to back off, but I was really hoping to see you. It’s been two weeks since we could make a date work, so what if I just picked up Venezia’s and came to yours? Have you had their pizza yet?_

Shuri read the text three times. She had just told him she’d be a cranky bitch and he was willing to subject himself to that? What was wrong with this man?

_James: You don’t need to talk about the experiment, I can’t fix it or help anyway, but I can feed you and maybe we can watch a dumb movie and both our days could be better?_

_James: You can say no._

_James: But if all that was stopping you was the fact that our date was going to make you wear non-pajamas, we can change the date location._

_James: I’m not into games, Shuri, I like you. I like you a lot. So I’m just laying this out there._

_James: And now I’m going to yeet myself into a hole somewhere for all of that._

Shuri laughed out loud.

_Shuri: Yeet?_

_James: My kids say it? Something about disappearing? I don’t know. I should stop trying to sound cool._

_Shuri: You teach classes about dead white men, James. That is literally the opposite of cool._

_James: Fair point._

_Shuri: I didn’t think you’d want to just sit on my couch._

_James: I want to be wherever you’ll let me be._

Shuri had to stop herself from actually swooning at that.

_Shuri: What words, white boy._

_Shuri: And I have had Venezia’s, they’re my favorite pizza place in Princeton._

_James: That’s because you’re a genius and they’re the best._

_Shuri: With black olives and sausage please._

_James: I’ll be there around 7?_

_Shuri: I’ll buzz you up._

She bit her lip to keep back a smile and made her way home. After a shower and a quick dervish around her living room to shove the clutter into hiding, she checked her watch and saw that James would be arriving any minute.

Shuri lived on the top floor of an old Victorian house that had been converted into apartments in the late 1980s. Of course, the Kingdom had rented the entire house and populated it with a rotating group of security guards to help Okoye keep track of things, but as far as everyone else on Peachtree Street was concerned, it was full of students.

The “buzzing up” thing had been a silly dream of Shuri’s after watching so many movies about New York. Her brother had insisted on a security system and so she insisted on having one where she could buzz people up from the front porch to her floor.

It was the little things.

Promptly at 7, the buzzer rang.

“It’s me,” he said, when she pressed the receiver button.

“It’s open,” she replied and simultaneously pressed the code to let him in.

When he arrived, it was empty handed and she cocked an eyebrow.

“It was faster to order it on UberEats and get it delivered straight here than to wait for it,” he explained by way of greeting. “I’m not denying you pizza, I promise.”

“Then I supposed I can let you in,” she grinned and stilled slightly as he brushed a kiss on her cheek as he passed her into the apartment.

She turned rapidly and pulled him back to her. Drawing him into a longer kiss, she whispered, “thanks for not letting me back out.”

“Thanks for being honest,” he replied after they broke the kiss. He proceeded to kiss her forehead - something he seemed to always do after they kissed and it just turned her heart inside out - and then shrugged off his jacket. He was in sweatpants and hoodie, half unzipped to display a Stark Industries T-shirt. There were frays at the cuffs and patches of dried paint on the hoodie and something twisted in Shuri. This was not a man out to impress her, or out to be someone he wasn’t in order to do that. This was a man who knew who he was and what he had to offer and she had said she wanted soft clothes and so he came over in them.

She was in trouble.

“How long until the pizza gets here?”

He checked his app and informed her it would be about 10 minutes. “Do you want to put on Netflix or something?”

She nodded. Background noise would be good. “I keep hearing about that show with the failures?”

James’ eyes lit up. “Nailed It? I love that show. Perfect background noise.”

Her stomach did a slight somersault of fearful joy at this seemingly perfect man and she smiled.

* * *

Her smile was going to kill him. Standing in her apartment, in his ratty writing clothes, he was pretty sure he was going to die from the light of her smile.

Bucky had spent the entire day going back and forth about whether he should tell her that he knew who she was. Steve and Tony had both made their opinion on the matter clear.

_“You cannot keep this from her, Bucky,” Steve said simply the evening before. “It’s too big.”_

_“Just give me a few more dates,” Bucky pleaded. “Let me see if she really likes me before we bring her brother into this.”_

_“Newsflash, Buckaroo,” Tony replied calmly as he spooned some sweet potatoes into Peter’s mouth, “her brother is in the middle of her life. If you want to let her make the call of when she tells you, I get it, but know that the longer you go, the uglier the fallout will be.”_

She settled herself on the sofa and he gingerly sat down near her. Not next to her, necessarily, but close enough that if snuggling started after they finished their dinner, he was in prime position.

Please God let snuggling happen.

She flipped on the show and they exchanged some small talk while the contestants failed their way through making cake pops. She learned that he hated eating jelly candies (“They get stuck in my teeth!”) and he learned that she never wanted to have children (“It’s not something I’m interested in, I have too many other things I want to create to spend time raising a child”). They talked through Shuri’s current research, and then she asked about why he was getting a PhD.

* * *

“Well,” he responded. “That’s kinda a long story.”

“We have time,” she called back.

“War was a lot of hurry up and wait and I was really bored, a lot,” he laughed as Shuri headed back into the living room and settled herself on the couch. “One of the other guys had begun to pass his time with free online classes and it seemed like a good idea. I always liked learning, but the shit of trying to keep life happening for my sister got in the way of school a lot, so I figured why the hell not.

“During my second tour, I found this professor from a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania who was doing a class on the representation of women in Modern American literature and, babe, I got hooked.”

He had the grin on his face that she loved the most, the one where he was totally calm and happy, where no one had questioned his intelligence lately, where no student had disappointed him… it was the one she hoped she brought out.

“Anyway, before I even really knew it, I was reading every spare minute and listening to podcasts on hidden meanings in literature and how authors constructed the worlds they wrote and I was sure Stevie was gonna give me all sorts of shit for it, but instead he started downloading information for scholarships and college and basically started shoving me to get my bachelor’s when we got home,” Bucky continued.

“So you did?”

He nodded. “I had no idea how to be a full-time student though, so even when I got into NYU for my undergrad, I deferred a year to take some more time to learn how to do school. I did community college classes and worked a bunch. Plus, I had this thing,” - he waved his metal arm a little to draw attention to it - “to learn how to use and PT at first was terrible.”

She placed her hand on his arm and kissed his nose. They’d talked a little about the arm and the process of getting it, but Shuri hoped to learn more as she earned his trust. She had a million questions, but kept reminding herself of Okoye’s advice to be a little slower.

_“You have questions about the tech, Shuri, which are probably better directed to Mr. Stark. When you are ready to hear about his heart, then you ask James,” Okoye had said, in a pragmatic tone, the other evening._

“So, about three months into an English class, Tony and Steve and I were all really drunk one night and I was talking about that lady from the first online class and how much she had changed my life and how she’d never know and how that was kinda shitty. Tony, of course, just made a face and the next morning I had a text message with all of her contact details so that I could tell her.”

Shuri snorted. “He’s such a meddling dick.”

“He is, but I love him for it,” Bucky said simply and Shuri was overwhelmed again by how solid his life was, how sure he was of the people who loved him. So much of her life had been small due to her position - the only place she had total freedom as the Crown Princess was in her lab, after all. There and her own private quarters were the only places she felt comfortable being Shuri and not Her Highness. When Nakia had come along, she’d gained a sister and important ally, but that was nothing like this. Being Shuri all the time, the way her life was opening up now… just too much to handle sometimes.

“Anyway,” Bucky continued, “so I took a punt and emailed her. Dr. Hinson’s her name, and she responded by setting up a Skype call with me and listing about ten more books I should read immediately to get me to start thinking analytically. She basically gave me my future and I have to do that for someone else, I just have to.”

Shuri arranged herself so that she was basically draped over him so she could card her hands through his hair. “I know you already are, Jamie. The way your students look at you -”

“How do you know?!”

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “When we are on campus, you are public property. That poetry reading you dragged me to? What about the time those boys came up to us on our date and asked you for help. You are gorgeous, obviously, and you get looks for that, but these looks are different. They are not for your ass or your cheekbones,” he rolled his eyes and she pressed their foreheads together. “They are for you, for your brain, and your generosity, and you. You are changing lives, Almost-Dr. Barnes, and it’s pretty beautiful to watch.”

There was a moment of silence before he pulled back and peered at her. Shuri was sure she had gone too far, had revealed her cards too much, had shown him how quickly she was falling and he was sure to run for the hills. Instead? He kissed the tip of her nose and replied, “that was a lot of sap coming from you.”

“Yeah, quota reached,” she smiled just as Bucky’s phone buzzed that their pizza was arriving.

He went to meet the UberEats driver at the curb and she took a minute to collect herself.

_This is your fourth date, Shuri. Get it together._

She knew that this was around the time when most couples would be talking about sex and she knew from the way his hand would grip her hip whenever they kissed goodnight that he wouldn’t be averse to such a measure.

But she was.

At least, for now.

In reality, she probably only got to do this once, this fluffy romantic bit, this falling in love, this… this way that butterflies had taken up residence in her stomach. At some point, probably in her 30s, she’d be matched to an “appropriate” mate and the sex would be perfunctory and she’d always expected to lose her virginity to someone she coudln’t stand.

Instead, she had this gift. This breath. This moment with a man who clearly thought she was special, and fuck if she was going to ruin it by rushing into the parts of everything she knew the least about.

But then he came back in, carrying her favorite food, with her favorite grin on his face and she lost her breath. He could love me, she thought. He could really, really love me, and I could get all my dreams, and …

And then, as if the ancestors had struck her, her familial tattoo began to itch and she reached to scratch it.

_You don’t get forever, Shuri T’Chana, you get this moment. Make it count._

* * *

_Two Weeks Later_

“What are you talking about?!” Bucky said in mock horror. “That movie is incredible!”

She shook her head and sipped her coffee. “That movie is an embarrassment.”

He threw up his hands in mock surrender. “How can I be dating a girl who doesn’t like Mighty Ducks? It’s a classic.”

“Maybe in middle America, Jamie,” she smiled, “but not in Wakanda.”

“Well, what’s a classic in Wakanda?”

She tilted her head to one side and launched into an explanation about how their best storytelling took place live. They didn’t really have television of their own, but she was partial to Little Mermaid.

“You dug a story about a girl who leaves her whole family for a boy,” Bucky replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “You, my Shuri who constantly tells me it’s a good thing I’m so cute or you’d get rid of me since I’m a distraction.”

“I dug a story about a girl who always knew more was out there,” she corrected. “The white boy was negotiable.”

He laughed and reached across the table to lace their fingers together. “Am I negotiable?”

Her breath caught. Be brave, Shuri. “No, Jamie. I don’t think you are.”

* * *

_ The Next Day _

“Are you seriously shitting me?”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “No, she asked for an extension! And then a quick search of her Snapchat - which was not locked - showed me she’d been at the J-Lo concert up in Newark. So, no, I failed her.”

“Good,” Steve nodded, his sense of justice fulfilled. They were jogging through a state park not far from campus while pushing Peter in the stroller. Tony desperately needed quiet and had basically shoved the three of them out the door about an hour before.

“She filed a complaint with the department that I was too harsh,” Bucky replied. “But I think Szabriger will have my back.”

“I would hope so,” Steve huffed. “When I think of all the students -”

“I don’t have the energy for your ‘they should be thankful they have a privileged education’ speech, Stevie,” Bucky snorted out a laugh. “Change the subject.”

“No problem,” Steve grinned. “How’s Shuri?”

His question was followed by silence, which Steve took to mean that Bucky was thinking about his answer.

“She terrifies me,” Bucky replied.

“What does that mean?”

“I think she could be it,” Bucky said. “I think I could see forever with her and it has been weeks and that is fucking terrifying.”

“Why?”

Bucky snorted. “Because love at first sight doesn’t exist?”

Steve laughed. “But you’re not at first sight, Buck. You’re learning her and you’re learning that she both fits in your life and makes it richer. So you can see that happening forever, what’s so scary?”

“Because it’s forever,” Bucky emphasized.

“Right,” Steve nodded and gestured to his son. “It’s forever. It’s work and it’s time and it’s a lot of things, but it’s all of that with the person who promises every day to stick around forever. It honestly doesn’t get any better.”

“Listen, Stevie, I get it -”

“Oh, I forgot one part.”

“What’s that?”

“If you’re not terrified, she’s not worth it. Love should feel like a shove off a cliff and the knowledge that there’s a safe place to land all at the same time. You don’t get that? Then she ain’t it.”

Bucky cast a side glance at his best friend as they reached the play park they had been aiming for. “So the terror is not a bug, it’s a feature?”

“Correct,” Steve grinned. “Welcome to the club.”

* * *

_ The Following Week _

“What name do you want me to use?”

Bucky squinted one eye open and peered up at Shuri. He had his head in her lap and she was idly playing with his hair while he was trying to calm himself after a really terrible meeting with his advisor.

“Whuddya mean?”

“I call you James or Jamie,” she went on, “and everyone else calls you Bucky. Your students call you Prof Barnes, your colleagues call you James, I want to know if I’m an ‘everyone’ or a ‘colleague’.”

He scrambled into a sitting position so that he could make eye contact as he said, “You’re Shuri. You call me whatever you want. You… you’re in your own category.”

She melted slightly at that and he pulled her into a kiss.

“And, for the record, no one calls me Jamie but you.”

“They don’t?”

He shook his head. “I actually kinda hated it until I heard it in your voice.”

A moment passed between them.

“Okay, Jamie, lay back down,” she whispered. “And let me tell you all the ways your advisor is an idiot.”

Bucky laughed and obeyed.

_So, I think I love her._

_I am so fucked._

* * *

_ Two Weeks Later _

Bucky woke up with a start. _Where the fuck am I?_

He surveyed the room and saw unfamiliar shapes and shadows and he started to wonder if he was back in the desert. No, it’s not hot enough and … and there is someone here…

_Shuri’s._

_I’m at Shuri’s._

_I’m in bed with Shuri._

_I’m fine._

He quickly regulated his breathing and forced his eyes closed. _Relax, you idiot, don’t let her figure out that you’re a bundle of anxiety held together by scar tissue._

Bucky had never been in a relationship that didn’t involve sex, but still involved sleepovers. It was… bizarrely amazing. Sure, he was hard as nails more often than he’d ever admit to anyone, but the gentle pace they’d set felt perfect.

“Jamie,” she murmured in her sleep. “Why are you awake?”

“Heard a noise, princess,” he murmured, then nearly swallowed his own tongue. _Fuck, fuck let her think that’s just a generic endearment._

She froze for a second and he thought the game was up.

“Quiet now?”

 _Phew_.

“Yeah, baby, just go back to sleep,” he kissed the side of her head and pulled her close.

The problem with being in love with someone with a semi-secret identity that you already knew about was that it was always too late to tell them you knew.

* * *

_ Around the Same Time _

Tony shifted Peter into his other arm and looked across the couch at his husband. “He has got to tell her he knows who she is.”

Steve nodded. “I’ve told him that at least fourteen times in the last two months.”

“And?”

“He said she’s kept up this whole pretense about how she’s the daughter of a tribal family that’s important, but that Wakanda is very, very poor and so ‘important’ doesn’t matter. Told him she’s here on scholarship.”

Tony snorted. “Wakanda is the only source of vibranium on the planet and if T’Challa is to be believed, that girl is the international expert in manipulating it.”

“Well, you and I are the only ones who have all those pieces, babe,” Steve smiled. “We know about vibranium, but Buck doesn’t. Buck knows he’s dating her, but T’Challa doesn’t, and she has no idea we all know who she is, really.”

Peter fussed a bit in his sleep and Tony groaned. “They’re hurtling towards permanency real quick, handsome. You gonna meddle soon?”

Steve reached for Peter and got up off the couch. “I’ll take him, and the answer is no. I’ve told Buck to tell her that we all know T and you told T to tell her that we all know each other. T’s response was that matters of military intelligence don’t concern his sister, so if he wants to be that big of an idiot, I’m not standing in his way.”

“This is gonna get ugly,” Tony said.

Steve paused at the door and grimaced. “Adulthood often is.”

Tony cackled. “Never in your fucking life have you run away from a fight and Buckaroo is about to fuck his way into an international incident, what are you doing being all lasseiz fare about it?”

“I’m trying,” Steve enunciated through a set jaw as he rocked Peter side to side, “to let him live his own life.”

“And how is that going for you?”

“You know, I had this supportive husband once,” Steve sighed as Peter began to fuss.

“Meh, I made a life model decoy ages ago,” Tony hoisted himself off the couch. “You are angry, I can see it in your jawline. Give me our kid and you go talk to the punching bag about your feelings.”

Steve glared at Tony for a minute and then handed Peter back over. “He’s being an idiot.”

“Oh, for sure,” Tony said. “But you’ve been one your entire lives, so this is just role reverse.”

“I hate you.”

“You too, sugarplum, you too.”

* * *

_ Three Weeks Later _

“Where do you want to go tonight?” Bucky asked Shuri from his seat on the couch.

She shrugged and fiddled with her teabag, wanting it to steep faster. “I don’t care.”

“You think,” he said, with a hint of caution in his voice that made her pause, “I could meet Okoye? Like, could she join us?”

They’d been seeing each other long enough that Shuri had stopped counting dates and had started counting months. She’d seen the Stark-Rogers clan a few more times, as well as met Darcy Barnes for a dinner that was more fun that Shuri had been expecting. There was a big holiday party happening the following weekend at the Stark-Rogers where Shuri would meet the rest of Bucky’s family, but she wasn’t nervous. No. Of course not. Why would anyone suggest that just because she had gone through fourteen outfit options already meant she was nervous?

He, however, had yet to meet the only member of her family who was stateside.

She’d fibbed when he’d pressed her about her roommate.

_“My cousin,” Shuri blurted. “Also from Wakanda. We’re from an important family and they wanted us to live together.”_

_A look had passed over Jamie’s face that Shuri hadn’t been able to place before he simply nodded and said he’d like to meet her cousin someday._

They’d already surmounted several firsts - first kiss, first fancy dinner date, first time that James picked her up from her lab and she was actually ready to go. First night together was on the horizon, Shuri could feel it, and she was simultaneously petrified and desperately ready.

And ignoring the voice in her head that said it was all going to come crashing down soon.

She loved him, she was sure of it, but she was also sure that it was far too soon to love someone. It was too soon to ask an English professor to become a prince, too soon to tell him that she’d never be allowed to live full time in America, too soon to tell him that she wasn’t actually from an impoverished country and that the biggest fight she had with her brother every day was about how selfish she felt about that.

It was all too soon.

But then he’d grin at her, or call her beautiful, or keep cocoa butter in his car for when her skin got ashy, or tell her a story about one of his students and her heart would go boom and she’d be back to square one.

“She’s busy tonight,” Shuri obfuscated. _She’s across the street in a car the Kingdom bought when I moved here so that she could covertly track my movements._ “But soon, I promise.”

“I just want to know your world, doll,” Bucky smiled. “It’s gotta be more interesting than my band of misfits.”

“I like your band of misfits,” she replied. And it’s not more interesting, but it’s certainly more dramatic.

“Well, they like you, and the ones who haven’t met you yet are going to love you.”

She brought her tea back over to the sofa and snuggled in next to him. He had his laptop propped open on his lap and was scanning the message board his students were required to post on a few times a week. He kissed the top of her head as she settled and pulled out her phone, scrolling through Buzzfeed to look for a quiz to take while he finished up.

A few moments later, he shut the laptop and she had found out that she was, of course, sorted into Slytherin. Everyone always placed her in Ravenclaw and she was, but something called to her about the crafitness and cunning of the Syltherins. If the Sorting Hat gave one a choice, she probably would have chosen Syltherin.

Besides, they certainly seemed to have more fun.

“Jamie, can we just eat here? It’s freezing out there.”

“Sure, you want pizza? Or Chinese?”

“Oooo, pizza,” her eyes went wide and he laughed.

“What are you going to do when you go back to Wakanda and can’t get Venezia’s anymore?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” she smiled as he placed their standard order on UberEats. “I’ll simply franchise them.”

Bucky raised his eyebrow and Shuri froze for a minute. _I am a simple girl from Wakanda. I cannot franchise a pizza shop from New Jersey. He’s going to know, he’s going to -_

“You’re gonna import the air and the water too, sweetheart,” he grinned. “Because the dough needs those things to be from around here. It’s why our pizza is better than anywhere else.”

“Oh, we’re going to do this again?” She sighed internally. He just thought she was being silly, not serious. She had been serious about the franchising. And importing the water. And figuring out the air in her lab.

What good was being a genius if she couldn’t get perfect pizza whenever she wanted it?

“Listen, I get that Chicago claims to make pizza, but we all know they don’t, and they really should stop this farce,” Bucky launched into his well-rehearsed rant. “It’s a deep dish meat pie with completely inappropriate proportions and if you can’t fold the slice in half in your fingers as you eat a pizza -”

“It’s not a true pizza,” Shuri interrupted him. “I know, Jamie. You’ve made your feeling clear.”

He rolled his eyes at the glint in hers and kissed her. She lost herself in the sensations a little bit, letting her hands wander and breath catch and…

“I’m ready whenever you are, sweetheart,” Bucky whispered against her lips. “We’re on your timetable. But I will say I’d like the first time I get my hands all over you to not be when we’re on a clock because the delivery guy might walk in.”

She snorted and nodded. “I’m… yes.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“I am scared, but not of you, and I am nervous, but not because of us, so yes. Soon.”

The look in Bucky’s eyes when she said that was some mixture of aroused and tender she wasn’t sure humans were capable of. They held the moment for a bit before she took a deep breath.

“I.. tell me a story.”

He laughed. “Classic deflection technique, babe.”

She swatted at him and rose from the sofa. “I’m getting a drink, want anything from the kitchen?”

“Nah,” Bucky replied. “What kind of story?”

“Um, tell me something about someone I’m meeting next weekend,” she supplied, her hands shaking slightly as she grabbed glasses from the cabinet. _Yes, because if I hear about you being wonderful and sweet and kind I may also forget you are so unbearably sexy that I now understand the Mills & Boon novels that the court ladies would smuggle in._

“Well,” Bucky began. “Nat was one of Tony’s many assistants right after Steve and Tony got married. Her full name is Natasha Maneska Anastasia Romanova and Tony usually calls her Czarina to make her mad, but she’s the most terrifying competent woman I know, except for her wife, Virginia.”

“Who you all call Pepper,” Shuri clarified as she returned.

Bucky nodded. “Another Tonyism. Nat now works for a non-profit that is working to expand maternal health care and they send her to the countries on all the “do not travel” lists insurance companies put out. She rolls her eyes at danger.”

“Sounds like my kind of lady,” Shuri smiled.

“She will love you,” Bucky grinned. “So will Pepper. Not only because you put Tony in his place - you’re already famous for that - but because you’re wonderful and they like wonderful people.”

 _I have to tell him soon_ , her subconscious pushed its way through. _Or this is going to go up in flames..._


	3. Chapter 3

[ ](https://images2.imgbox.com/35/7d/LgbGqvaO_o.jpg)

*********************

“And everything is going well with your studies?”

Shuri nodded. Since becoming king, more and more of her brother T’Challa was slipping through her fingers. She just kept hearing the King of Wakanda - this persona who wore a crown - dripping into his voice and she didn’t like it. These calls were starting to feel perfunctory and that bugged her.

Well, there was one way to get a reaction out of him.

“Lab is fine, like it always is, but brother, I have a boyfriend.”

There was complete silence on the other end of the transmission and Shuri thought for a minute that something had frozen.

“Challa?”

“I heard you,” her brother’s reply was slow and measured.

“Oh good,” she smiled.

“I’m assuming you have kept your cover with this boy?”

“This _man_ is a doctoral candidate and I have, yes, but I’d like your permission to tell him soon,” she replied.

“Is this boy why you did not come home for the holiday break?”

Shuri shook her head. “No, I got extra lab time and I genuinely wanted to have an American Christmas and I’m glad I did. He was around, yes, but I stayed for me. You know me better than that, brother.”

“And the boy’s name?”

“You are getting on my last nerve with this boy bullshit, Challa,” Shuri snapped. “His name is James Barnes and he’s getting his PhD in English and he’s brilliant and kind and funny and, get this, he knows Tony Stark.”

Something passed over her brother’s face that Shuri wasn’t sure what to make of. “Oh?”

“Yeah, I actually know him now, a little, and his husband Steve, who is James’ best friend, and they have a boy named Peter, and then his sister is lovely, too-”

She cut herself off when she realized his face still hadn’t moved. “Are you not happy for me, brother?”

“There are matters -”

“I’m not on a Skype call with the fucking King of Wakanda,” Shuri’s temper flared. “I am on a call with my brother and I’d like some happiness that I finally found someone who has no idea what my title is and yet loves me.”

“He loves you.”

“Yes,” she said. “And I love him, and it’s good, Challa.”

“You are dating a white boy?”

“I never said-”

“I must go, Shuri,” T’Challa was suddenly animated. “We will talk soon.”

The transmission cut off and she shook her head. “Well, that was fucking weird.”

* * *

Approximately nineteen hours later, Shuri was sitting in her apartment, eating breakfast in her pajamas, when her front door slammed open.

She startled and then… Then she got angry.

Standing in the small entryway to her apartment in New Jersey was her brother and his wife, both of whom should be safely in Wakanda. They were accompanied by Okoye, who clearly knew they were coming from the look on her usually stoic face and Shuri was definitely asking about that later.

“Brother, what are you doing here,” Shuri seethed and cast a furious glance at both Okoye and Nakia, as though either woman could save her from the nightmare she woke up in.

“After your last phone call regarding Bucky-”

“How do you know that name?” Shuri’s voice was deadly. In her conversation with her brother, she had only ever called Bucky ‘James’.

T’Challa blanched.

“I asked how you know that name, brother,” Shuri said coldly.

“Because I served with him,” T’Challa responded. “On that tour I did with the American Marines when you were a teenager. I know your James as Bucky, and I know Tony, and I know Steve, and I’ve even met Peter. I know these people, which is why I allowed you to go to Princeton since they would be close -”

“You _allowed_ me,” Shuri sneered.

“Shuri, you know you are only here because I was comfortable with a support system. Surely you must know I wouldn’t just rely on our own security,” T’Challa’s tone was placating and Shuri snapped.

“Nakia, tell your husband to stop speaking to me like I am one of his subjects or I will renounce my title.”

“We all need to calm down,” Nakia tried.

“Does he know?” Shuri barked at T’Challa, tears falling from her eyes.

T’Challa looked at her and nodded. “He knows you are my sister. But I have not spoken to Barnes since you two started your assignation, so I do not know why he didn’t tell you.”

“So you didn’t send him after me in some sort of macho bullshit to protect me?”

“No,” T’Challa said firmly. “If he has feelings for you, they are his alone. I did nothing to encourage this.”

“Well, that’s something,” Shuri furiously wiped her eyes. “But he still lied.”

“So did you,” Nakia quietly pointed out.

“Whose side are you on, sister?” Shuri snapped at her.

“I am on the side of your happiness, always,” Nakia replied and then threw a glare at her husband. “Which is why I do not approve of how this is being handled by either your brother or The Crown.”

“What is The Crown doing?”

“Your visa will be terminated -” T’Challa started.

“No.”

“You will finish your work from Wakanda -”

“I renounce.”

The siblings stared at each other for several heated moments.

“Does he want to marry you?”

Shuri set her jaw. “We have been together for six months, brother, that is a little fast.”

“Not for someone to be in the royal line of Wakanda, Shuri! Not for you to bring an _American_ into our line, not for you to bring a _non-African_ into our line,” T’Challa explained. “Can you imagine how the people will feel when you do not marry one of the African princes or dignitaries available to you? This must be _handled_.”

“My love life is my business,” Shuri said stubbornly.

“For a genius, you are an idiot,” T’Challa snapped. “We have not been our own people since we were cells in a womb. Just because you are now fifth in line and not second does not mean you are not in the line. If you want to stay with this boy, then we need to have conversations with the Elders-”

“The Elders are not a part of this, brother,” Shuri snapped.

“They have to be, sister,” T’Challa replied firmly. “I am here to speak to both of you, to find out his intentions, and to begin the marriage process if it is so necessary. Can you please arrange a time for us to meet?”

Shuri blinked. “If he’s one of your best friends, you do it.”

“What the fuck is happening here?”

Shuri’s entire stomach dropped to her feet. “Jamie, my brother has come for a visit.”

* * *

Bucky froze in the doorway. He had dropped by with breakfast because he’d been out and about and thought Shuri might like a bagel. And now he was in a nightmare. He could hear Steve’s voice in his head telling him he deserved this nightmare and he could have ended it ages ago by using his words.

_Not helpful now, pal._

“Bucky,” T’Challa put him out of misery, “it is good to see you again, but I wish I had known about this.”

“Why?”

It was out of Bucky’s mouth faster than he could stop it. He knew why, kinda, but he wanted to hear it from the man himself. He ignored the daggers that Okoye had coming out of her eyes and the ice coming from Shuri.

“It is not in our custom for the princess of Wakanda to be in a romantic entanglement with someone not approved of by the crown.”

Bucky snorted. “She’s a human being, T, not a fucking pawn in a chess match. Plus, she ain’t gonna get the throne.”

“You are being obtuse,” T’Challa spat. “You obviously love her, she obviously loves you, and you are obviously heading towards a union. That can not happen without my approval and you should have known that, friend. You should have called me immediately-”

“Whoah,” Bucky held up his hands. “Are you actually telling me that I should have called you, in the year of our Lord 2020, to ask permission to date your sister. Did that actually just come out of your mouth.”

“Yes,” T’Challa replied. “Her courtships are at my discretion.”

“Ngenza ye-fuck,” Nakia murmured as she planted her head in her hands.

“Ancestors kill me now,” Shuri moaned and Bucky moved to go to her. T’Challa stepped in his way and Bucky snapped.

“Listen, T, I’m sorry if I did some cultural fuck up, I really am, but in my world, a 25-year-old genius gets to make her own decisions about who she fucks and who she loves,” Bucky yells.

Bucky could tell that the other man was seething but couldn’t really find it in himself to care. T’Challa had just burst into a grown adult’s apartment without invitation or consent and Bucky didn’t really care if the man was the Emperor of the Universe - Shuri didn’t need that shit.

“James,” Okoye scolded through gritted teeth, “you are speaking to the King of Wakanda.”

“I’m not, actually,” he responded, turning on Okoye. “I’m talking to the overprotective brother of the woman I’m in love with who also happens to be a pal from the service. If you want me to talk to the King of Wakanda, I certainly ain’t discussing any of this, so pick a lane, pal.”

“You do not have that luxury, James,” T’Challa responded with a calmness that boiled Bucky’s blood. “Anyone who is involved with Shuri is not just dating a woman, they are dating a princess of Wakanda and must be treated as such. Your American pedantry is not welcome here.”

Bucky glared at T’Challa, whose face was unmoving.

“Do I get a say in this?” Shuri snapped. She’d retreated to the couch during the macho posturing and wrapped herself in one of Bucky’s ubiquitous hoodies he left lying around.

Both men turned to look at her and she stood slowly. “Do I get a say in my own life or shall I be like women of yore and be silent while the men fight over my reproductive capabilities?”

“Shuri,” T’Challa groaned.

“Answer me, brother,” Shuri said evenly.

“What do you want, doll,” Bucky replied quietly and Shuri’s eyes flew to his.

“Not that name, not right now.” There was a snarl in her voice and she knew it. She also wasn’t inclined to get rid of it.

“I was gonna tell you -”

“And yet here we are,” Shuri gestured to the room.

No one spoke for a moment and then Nakia cleared her throat.

“May I suggest we all return to our various dwellings and agree to speak again once Shuri and James have had a chance to process what has happened.”

“Wife,” T’Challa started and Nakia held up her hand.

“You do not want to start with me, Challa,” Nakia threatened. “You and I will go to wherever the Embassy has arranged for us. Shuri, I will speak to you in five hours. Is that-”

“That will be fine,” Shuri assured her sister-in-law. “I’ll make decisions by then.”

“Shuri, can we -” Bucky started, but she shook her head. She waited for T’Challa and company to file out of her apartment and then she turned to face her…

She turned to face James.

“I do not know what to do with the noise in my heart right now, so I need you to leave.”

“Can we-”

“I need you to leave, James,” Shuri said forcefully, her voice breaking slightly.

He looked at her like his heart was breaking - mine too, Jamie - and then nodded. “I’m not turning my phone off. Please call me when your heart is quiet enough to hear mine again.”

As he closed the door behind him, she formulated a plan.

* * *

“I understand, by the way,” Tony said suddenly.

Shuri stared at him. “You understand what?”

“Why you didn’t tell him,” Tony replied. “Hand me that motherboard?”

The pair were in Tony’s lab after Bucky had called Tony to explain that he couldn’t find Shuri anywhere. Tony, who had long ago given Okoye access to his entire AI network in exchange for a tracking device on Shuri’s phone, pinpointed her immediately.

_“Get in the car,” he gestured to the curb. He’d found her at a cafe in Yardley, across the river into Pennsylvania. “I don’t even want to know how much your Uber cost you since I know you didn’t call Okoye, but I respect running from idiots. I have a warm lab with lots of tools and a promise I’ll keep Barnesy away from you while you stew, wanna come?”_

_She glared at him for a few seconds. “If we stop for Wawa on the way. I want mac and cheese and the Uber wouldn’t stop.”_

_“Well that rating needs to go down,” Tony replied. “Let’s go.”_

She passed it over and resumed her fiddling with the hologram in front of her. “You understand why I lied?”

“You didn’t lie,” Tony replied. “Lies of omission like that aren’t… listen, I don’t have time for people who have no idea what it’s like to be us to tell me how I should splay myself out there for everyone before I test the waters.”

She blinked at him, fully abandoning the hologram. “I don’t think I understand.”

He sighed and rubbed his hands on his face. “Listen, let me be the old man for a minute, eh? Because this is a road I paid a lot of professionals to drag me down.”

He gestured to the sofa in the corner of his workshop and they took a seat.

“I’m the closest thing to you in the States, I think, that you’ll meet anyway” he said. “My dad was a bit of a king, I was known from birth on sight by most people. I was raised to have responsibilities that were attached to my name and not my person, and I went nuts rebelling against that for a while.”

“Which is a privilege afforded to you by your penis,” Shuri pointed out and Tony laughed.

“I know, trust me, I’m learning,” Tony grinned. “But I know what it feels like to not be your own person in your own skin, I get that itch, that frustration, and you’ve handled it a lot better than I have by a mile, your highness.’

“No,” she shook her head. “Not here, not that. Especially since you knew.”

“I did,” he confessed.

“And you could have told Jamie, but you didn’t.”

He shook his head. “Because I was never going to take that choice from you.”

She was still for a moment and he continued.

“The best day of my life was when Steve had no idea who I was and flirted with me anyway,” Tony laughed. “I was in the middle of this military base and everyone knew to expect Tony Stark, but my sweet, oblivious husband had never googled me and so he thought I’d be, I don’t know, sixty, and so when I showed up in my three-piece suit with my asshole attitude and converse sneakers, he just thought I was part of Tony’s entourage. I’d gotten his number before he found out the truth.”

“And what did he do?”

“Well, I’m grateful I got his number and he didn’t get mine because he told me he woulda torn it up,” Tony replied. “He was already pretty disenchanted with being a Marine and quote ‘fucking a defense contractor’ endquote was not on his to do list. But we emailed for a long time, I built an encrypted thing he could carry with him to text me, and then I built one for his entire unit and that won me points, and then Bucky got hurt.”

Tony shrugged. “I was on the next plane before Steve even knew Bucky was one of the survivors and that… well, that let me be human again.”

His mouth twisted in a smile. “You see, Shuri, they want you to be human, they love the human, and then someone comes along and reminds them that you’re not, that we’re not, not fully - that we come with supernatural trappings, either wealth or royal status - and they panic. He should have told you that he knew you were Princess Shuri of Wakanda, sure, and you should have told him the same, but you didn’t and I get it and you idiots will work through it. Because if I wooed Steve ‘Stubborn Has My Picture Next To It In the Dictionary’ Rogers, you’ll have Build-A-buck back on side in no time.”

She laughed. “Thanks, Tony. I don’t know if I believe you, but thanks. I’m still pretty mad at him.”

“You get to be,” Tony replied. “But you don’t get to walk without talking to him. You love him too much for that and you know it.”

She glared at him and he only grinned.

“You’re not the only genius in the family anymore, Leia,” he kissed the top of her forehead quickly as he got up and summoned DUM-E. “Okay, Schmoopy Uncle Tony Hour is over. Let’s get back to work.”

* * *

_WhatsApp: The Doctor and the Genius_

_Shuri: We have two conversations to have._

Bucky stared at his phone. After almost four days of radio silence - which Shuri had asked for and he was more than happy to give her since it wasn’t like he knew what to say either - this was first contact.

_Shuri: The Crown Princess and her American Boyfriend need to have one that involves the King._

_Shuri: Bucky and Shuri need to have one that does not._

_Shuri: The King has forced our hand and that conversation must take place within the next week or he’s going to tell the Elders._

_Shuri: I am not happy._

Bucky snorted to himself. “Oh, I’m sure you’re not.”

_Shuri: But Nakia has asked me to calm down and take the meeting and I will walk through fire for the woman who puts up with my brother, so we will go to the Embassy._

_Shuri: But not until Shuri and Bucky talk._

_Bucky: I agree._

_Bucky: We have a lot to discuss._

_Shuri: I miss you. I am angry at many things, both you and other things, but I still love you and I miss you._

Bucky let out the breath he didn’t know he had been holding.

_Bucky: I am frustrated and confused, but not mad, and still very much in love with you._

_Shuri: Good, soldier boy. Because finding handsome men who can speak in iambic pentameter is hard to do._

Bucky laughed.

_Bucky: Are you doing anything after lab tonight? Or can I pick you up so we can talk?_

_Shuri: Please. I’ll be ready._

_Bucky: I’ll believe it when I see it._

_Shuri: I am always ready!_

_Bucky: You are never ready because you love your slides more than me._

_Shuri: James Barnes, I am pretty sure I don’t love anything more than you._

Bucky felt tears spring to my eyes.

_Bucky: I don’t know how to be a princess’ boyfriend, but I’m really into being yours._

_Shuri: Let’s go from there._

* * *

“I understand why you didn’t tell me,” Shuri started off as soon as she climbed into Bucky’s car later that evening and fastened her seat belt. “Where are we going?”

“I thought we’d just drive for a bit,” Bucky replied. “Why didn’t I tell you?”

“Because my brother is an overprotective ass,” Shuri said with confidence.

Bucky laughed. “He is, yes, and he spent a lot of time when we were in the desert talking about his genius sister who wasn’t interested in boys and he was so thankful because she was the most important person in his life.”

Shuri rolled her eyes. “My brother is a drama queen.”

“Not to be all caveman about it, but I get it,” Bucky said. “You’re something special, Shuri, and he was petrified that some idiot who wasn’t worthy of you would come along and -”

“And distract me? He thought my libido would outweigh my passion for science?”

“No,” Bucky said and glanced quickly over at her. “He thought he’d have to marry you off to someone if he didn’t convince Nakia to marry him quickly. He waxed poetic for hours, Shuri, hours about the two of you and your mother, about how you were the strongest women in the world but that the world wasn’t built for strong women. So, fast forward a few years, who the fuck am I to fall in love with the crown princess of the most technologically advanced nation on earth? Yes, I know about the vibranium, he told me one night when we were both too drunk.”

Shuri snorted. “Good to know that his sobriety is all that stands between the world and our state secrets.”

Bucky grinned. “I like to think I’m pretty trustworthy.”

She laughed. “Your face is hard to lie to, I’ll admit.”

He smirked. “Yours too, sweetheart.”

They were quiet for a minute before Shuri reached over and wound her fingers through his hand that was resting on the gear shift. She loved that he drove a manual transmission - it made him feel a little less American. “Do you know why I didn’t tell you?”

Bucky nodded and swallowed. With the bob of his adam’s apple, she wondered if he was holding back tears. “I talked to Steve, who gave me some insights into the whole your-life-is-not-your-own thing. I’m not mad at you, Shuri.”

“I’m mad at me,” she whispered.

He glanced quickly.

“I told you I loved you,” Shuri said, “without letting you know one of the biggest parts of me. My brother is an ass, but he is not an idiot. To love me is to love Wakanda and I denied you that.”

Bucky was silent. “I still love you, and I look forward to loving Wakanda.”

“I talked to the Elders,” Shuri continued with a squeeze of his hand.

“You said that on the WhatsApp,” Bucky confirmed. “Do I get to know?”

“Later,” she replied. “Tonight I want to tell you about my Wakanda; not as her princess, but as her daughter. Can I do that?”

“I’d be honored,” Bucky smiled and directed the car back towards her apartment. They picked up Thai food along the way and spent the evening reminding themselves why loving each other felt like coming home.

* * *

_15 Months Later_

“Bucky,” Nakia said as she kept a close eye over her rampaging children, “what do want for dinner?”

“Is it creepy if I say goat?”

Nakia laughed and smiled. “Only those who don’t live with the earth have a fear of eating things with faces.”

“Bucky wants a pet goat now,” Shuri teased her boyfriend. “He’s even given some of Absalom’s names.”

“Oh no, Uncle Bucky,” ten-year-old Omotola moaned from her perch where she read her book and ignored the rest of her siblings as they cavorted around the grassy yard. “You cannot give them names. That is all white people’s mistakes.”

“Hey,” Bucky protested, “there are white folks who are farmers who, I’m sure, think I’m a cheesy idiot.”

“Oh, there are white people who aren’t farmers who think you’re a cheesy idiot,” Shuri assured him, which earned her an eye roll and a fond smile.

It was over a year since they’d all agreed with the elders on a plan for the future. Even though both Bucky and Shuri knew that everything was moving towards marriage, there were a lot of things that had to happen before Wakanda could get its first outsider member of the royal family. He was first introduced to the country as a friend of T’Challa’s, for example, and Steve, Tony, and Peter were all on the same visit.

Then, slowly, Shuri and Bucky were seen out in the country without anyone else. Rumors began to fly, but statements and answers were prepared ahead of time. Then Bucky made a public statement about how much he was enjoying learning the history of Wakanda and he worked with the palace to become one of the international spokespeople.

The national confirmation that Princess Shuri and James Barnes were an item had hit the international headlines so fast everyone’s head had spun. Tony had hired them a media consultant - who nearly everyone scoffed at and then was completely thankful for once Hello! started sending reporters to stalk Bucky around Princeton.

Shuri finished her M.S. defense and moved back to Wakanda full time. This had been a contentious decision, but Shuri was technically in the country on a student visa and did not want to flaunt her privilege to be able to stay with her boyfriend - not when so many other people were unable to do so. Instead, they both became advocates for immigration reform and spent a lot of time on WhatsApp video calls and then on a proprietary software that Shuri and Tony built together.

The plan was to get engaged after Bucky’s final defense. He’d move to Wakanda and go through a tribal citizenship ceremony. Once that happened, they could start negotiating with the elders exactly what their roles would be within the Kingdom.

Both of them wanted to move back to the U.S. - Shuri and Tony had been scheming and using a lot of words that neither Steve or Bucky understood, but they had a hunch that with their partners harnessing their collective genius, the world would never be the same.

But first? First the ancestors get their honors and then the future generations get their plans.

The conversation swirled on - punctuated with laughter and teasing and accompanied by the smells simmering from the ovens. Soon, Nakia was calling everyone to the table and Bucky placed his hand on Shuri’s thigh to hold her in place for a second. She looked quizzically at him.

“I love you.”

Shuri smiled. “I love you, too.”

“Just checking.”

* * *

_Six Months Later_

“I don’t know why I even put up with you,” Shuri kissed her boyfriend. “The man who took me to his best friend’s house for our first date.”

“Whatever,” Bucky smiled. “You loved it and you’ve been showing up Tony ever since.”

“Someone needs to keep that man in his place.”

“And there’s no better woman for it,” he smiled.

“Hey,” she said quietly after a few moments.

“Hey,” he replied.

“I’m really proud of you, Dr. Barnes,” she whispered and he grinned.

The pair were laying in the bed, the morning after Bucky’s defense and neither was ever sure they’d get tired of calling Bucky ‘Dr. Barnes’. So many years and dreams and tears were caught up in that title.

“Well, I’m pretty proud of you, Chief Design Engineer for Inkqubela Technologies,” he smiled back. Using the Xosha word for ‘progress’, Shuri and Tony had incorporated their new company quietly the day before. Their plan was to spend the next several years developing vaccine delivery systems that could survive the most extreme climates that climate change was going to throw at them while Shuri and Bucky were busy figuring out how to be Princess Shuri and Her Royal Husband James.

Speaking of...

“Marry me?”

He blinked. “All these years? That’s it?”

She shrugged with a twinkle in her eye. “You know the other words.”

“But I’m a words guy,” Bucky protested. “I like the other words.”

She huffed, with a tease in the noise. “James Buchanan Barnes, you are the only one who makes my brain quiet and my heart safe. Will you marry me?”

He blinked rapidly and she could see the sheen of tears. Bucky leaned forward to kiss her, slowly and languidly before pulling back and whispering a yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Stony](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or [Stuckony](https://discord.gg/jtXcc3n) servers.  
> 
> 
> Oh! And FestiveFerret and I have a [fandom podcast](http://www.podonthesuit.com) if you're so inclined.  
>   
> 


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